Only Human
by Pir8grl
Summary: So...I'm rewatching Arrow S2, and some of the stuff Sara had to do was so bad, that Oliver let her family believe that she died on the Gambit, rather than tell them what she had to do to survive on the Amazo. And I started to wonder how Ava might react to that.
1. Chapter 1

Only Human

The rattle of a handful of rock salt hitting the now-solid ground echoed like gunshots in the sudden silence. The only other sound was the ragged gasping breaths of the assorted Legends and Time Bureau operatives, who'd been knocked off their collective feet by the demon's rather spectacular departure.

"Sara," Snart muttered, crawling forward on limbs that he didn't entirely trust to hold him upright just then. She pushed herself up wearily, needing both arms to get that far, then slumped against Snart's chest. His hand tangled in her hair, and his lips pressed to her temple.

Around the circle, the others were cautiously attempting to sit up and take stock of their situation.

"Is it gone?" Gary demanded, wild-eyed.

"Yes," Nora replied quietly. She had both hands pressed to her head, as if the slightest noise were painful. Constantine passed her his flask, and she accepted it without comment, taking a deep drink.

Ava got carefully to her feet, dusting off her suit. "Is - was that - _**real?**_" she stammered.

"Aye, love. That it was," Constantine told her.

"And all those - those things we saw?"

"The darkest moments of each of our lives." He winced, recalling Astra's innocent little voice. Nora handed him back his flask and he drained it.

Ava was staring at Sara in wide-eyed horror. "How _**could**_ you? You _**tortured**_ people."

"And then later on, I killed them. You know who I was. I never lied about it. I did what I had to," Sara muttered. She and Snart climbed painfully to their feet, leaning on one another. "I'm not proud of it, but I'm done with apologizing for things I had no choice in."

"Sara, there is _**always**_ a choice," Ava said fervently.

Mick lurched to his feet. "Tell you what, time cop. Next time around, you come back as a teenage girl with no training, alone on a boat fulla cutthroats and worse, and you can tell us all about what sorta choices you had."

Snart tightened his grip on Sara and glared over her head at Ava. When he finally spoke, his voice was icily precise. "The only other way off of that ship would have been Sara's body at the bottom of the North China Sea, before we ever even met. I like her choices just fine."

"It's a human thing, love," Constantine added snidely.

And yes, maybe that was a bit much, and maybe Sara should have intervened, but she was just so damn tired. She needed a good, stiff drink…or three…or four, and shower to wash away the stink of sulphur. And she needed Snart. She doubted sleep would come easily (if at all) and she needed some human contact and comfort. Judging from the fierceness of his grip, Snart did, too.

She glanced back at Ava, then shook her head once, sadly and silently, and led her all-too-human crew back to the Waverider.


	2. Chapter 2

Sara was curled up around his pillow when Snart returned from his shower. She was wearing a threadbare Starling City Rockets tee, and her stuffed shark was within reach. She was munching on a chocolate rabbit. His lips curled in a faint, involuntary smile. The first word that came to his mind was 'adorable,' but he didn't dare utter it; he knew her well enough to recognize her very particular methods of dealing with distress.

He climbed up beside her, and she promptly curled into his side, extending her rabbit in his general direction. He did smile then, before biting off a chocolate paw.

"So that was Alexa," Sara murmured.

"Yeah." He took another bite, then passed the treat back to her, gathering his thoughts while he chewed. "I told you once, it's the things I didn't do that keep me up at night. I…you know I've killed when I had to. I never tried to hide that. But I was never one for dropping bodies for no reason. It's sloppy. It's -"

"It's what your father did." She burrowed closer into his shoulder.

"Alexa…she got inside my head, distracted me. There were things I should have checked for myself, but she said she'd taken care of it, and didn't I trust her? All those security guards…they died because I was a sucker for a pretty face."

"Did you learn from it?"

"Hell, yeah. I learned to trust no one. I learned to figure all the angles, do all the research for myself. I, uh…may have some lingering problems with …trust issues," he added slyly.

Sara reached up and popped the last piece of chocolate bunny into his mouth. "Good thing you've got me to help you work through all that."

"Good thing," he agreed, with a low chuckle. "And you? Are you all right? Ava…"

"I did what I had to do to stay alive. I made my peace with that. If other people can't deal with it, that's on them, not me." She cuddled closer, nearly in his lap…not that he was complaining. "And hey, thanks for sticking up for me. You and the boys. That really…it meant a lot to me."

Snart turned his head slightly to press a kiss to her forehead. "If this little escapade taught us anything, it's that we all have things in our past that we'd rather forget. Like the man said, it's just part of being human."

Sara's eyelids were starting to flutter.

"Do you think you can sleep now?" Snart murmured.

"I dunno."

"Try. I'll be right here, if you need me."


End file.
